To a computer company like IBM, plug-in electric vehicles just look like more nodes on the network.

IBM tomorrow is expected to announce a demonstration project with Honda and California utility Pacific Gas & Electric to charge a fleet of Honda Fit EVs without disrupting the grid.

The smart-charging project will also test smartphone and Web-based apps for consumers, giving them an estimate of charge time and location of charging stations.

The power grid as a whole has the capacity to accommodate millions of plug-in vehicles, say experts. But if there's a concentration of electric cars charging at once, it could strain the local distribution grid. Utility executives say that having even just four or five electric cars in the same neighborhood could cause stability problems.

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The IBM smart-charging system will be able to monitor a car's battery charge state along with the grid load and optimize the car's charge rate. If the grid is getting overloaded on a hot summer day, for example, the system could change the charging schedule. Consumers could indicate they'd want their car fully charged by, say, 6 a.m. and take advantage of off-peak rates.

IBM will use the telematics system already in the Honda Fit EV to gather data. The information will also be analyzed for charging patterns for the regional grid, IBM said.

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Martin LaMonica is a senior writer covering green tech and cutting-edge technologies. He joined CNET in 2002 to cover enterprise IT and Web development and was previously executive editor of IT publication InfoWorld.
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